Trading in the Euro Notional future averaged 251,324 lots a day, showing a rise of over 14% from the beginning of the year. On May 4, it even reached 514,052 lots, the second best daily figure since the launch of the contract in 1986.
Turning to equity and index contracts, dividend distribution means that May is traditionally a fairly slack month, but figures for this year show a significant rise from the same month of last year. Trading in CAC 40 index options was up 17.4% from April and 50% from May 1999. Similar trends were observed for other contracts, with year-on-year rises reaching 4% for the CAC 40 future, 6% for short-term equity options and 51% for long-term equity options.
In the commodities compartment, trading in the maize future reached a record of 835 lots on May 4, confirming the growing interest of industry professionals. Milling wheat and rapeseed futures showed predictable declines as the sales season drew to a close.
